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14 May 2014

Benny's Neo Classic Space Ship

Is 2014 just the best year of LEGO® sets ever?? Of course not... that was 1979. But this summer's wave of new sets contains some absolutely thrilling sets. If it weren't for the upcoming LEGO Ideas Exo-Suit, I'd say that my most anticipated set of 2014 was 70816 Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!

Of course, I'm biased because this set represents the ultimate in nostalgia for me, but that also brought a huge weight of expectation to this build. Could a modern set really evoke the kind of love I felt for my Space sets as a kid? I was really worried it wouldn't capture the intangible magic of Classic Space and just leave me feeling like it was any other modern-day Space set but in blue/grey/trans-yellow. I'm happy to report that this was not the case at all.

It's massive. It's so freakin' massive. 64 studs long! The advertised piece count is 940, which seems surprisingly low but there are a lot of very large elements in there. It's elegant too - far more so than it appeared from the online pics. And it's jam-packed with design references to Classic Space. The main colour scheme is the most obvious - grey wings, blue body and trans-yellow windows. But the small touches are there too, such as the transparent coloured lights - red on the left, green on the right. The element selection of course plays a big part too, such as the 'loudspeakers' and the ribbed jet engines, and the stickered parts heavily reference designs and fonts from that era. But this is a modern-day set as well, so features a multitude of play functions, weapons, Technic, cool recent parts and indeed some rudimentary greebling.

New Elementary's copy kindly came from LEGO's Community and Events Engagement Team, but reports are coming in of the set already appearing on shelves in some locations. The official release date is 1 June 2014 and the RRP is US$99.99. The US link to pre-order is at the end of this post.

Parts

I'll mention interesting parts as I review the build later, but let's first pay special attention to the most exciting elements included in the set.

The elements everyone has been talking about are of course the Classic Space ones. Most, sadly, are stickered but I'm overjoyed that the 2X4 18° slopes in Blue [BL]/Bright Blue [TLG] with the Classic Space logo are printed parts (Element ID 6078302 | Design ID 30363). Logo slopes were an important feature of Classic Space sets but of course they were on 33° slopes back then - TLG didn't introduce the 18° slope until 1999, so this is an exciting choice. There are three included, and we're bound to see these a lot in future Neo Classic Space MOCs.

The other part we'll see used a lot is the Trans-Yellow [BL]/Tr. Yel [TLG] canopy, which is the new 6X12 one. So far this new part has only come in Trans-Clear [BL]/Transparent [TLG], in the massive Star Wars 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter last year. It's gorgeous and sleek and Spacers will feel like they've got several Christmases at once. The main issue you'll have building with it is making your ship large enough to match!

There's more new Trans-Yellow. There are two 2X5X1 2/3 windscreens (Element ID 6065600 | Design ID 6070), a part that didn't appear until 1992 but has been used in many Space sets since. Being smaller, it's far more practical than the 6X12 canopy and will make a great starting point for spacecraft.

A more modern part, the 1X4X1 panel, also comes in Trans-Yellow for the first time (Element ID 6065601 | Design ID 30413) and there are three. 1X4 bricks in Trans-Yellow were common in Classic Space, so I guess this is the modern equivalent and the extra space it offers will be great for tight cockpits.

Another classic Classic Space part is the 3X2/2X2 bracket, known as the Space Seat as the extra space it has at the back allows room for spacemen to keep their airtanks on when seated. This also allows Robo Emmet to keep his Piece of Resistance on, and Space Wyldstyle's hoodie doesn't get in the way. It's a pretty odd part with interesting inclusions, like the offset stud at the back of the 3X2 section. The five included here are Blue (Element ID 4657998 | Design ID 4598) which, I was surprised to learn when researching this post, has been included in sets twice in recent years. Before that though, Blue Space Seats hadn't been seen since 1989.

There's a couple of non-Spacey Blue parts of interest. Baby bows, the 1X2X2/3 curved slope, come in Blue (as well as in a couple of 2014 Spider-Man sets). 1X2 plates with a click hinge on the long edge are new in Blue (Element ID 6055414 | Design ID 44567), and also appear in 2014's City 60056 Tow Truck.

Grey is the other important Classic Space colour, but TLG changed their shade of grey a decade ago so naturally the parts here are Light Bluish Gray [BL]/Medium Stone Grey [TLG]. Two of the new Light Bluish Gray elements in this set are parts that I've blogged about recently; the 2X2 corner tile (Element ID 6065874 | Design ID 14719) of which there are two and, less excitingly, the amended 1X8X2 arch with 'raised' curve (Element ID 6079722 | Design ID 16577). Of even less interest, there's one of those laser engraved tiles printed with a code to use in the LEGO Movie Video Game. I'm at least pleased to report the engraving quality is a lot better than the one I got in an earlier LEGO Movie set.

Build

Three minifigures come in bag #1. Emmet, in his hilariously unconvincing disguise as Robo Emmet, has silver muck all over his face and a little on his feet, but most exciting I think is his Piece of Resistance - that weird 1X1X2 brick with a hole in the side - which comes in Flat Silver [BL]/Silver Met. [TLG] (Element ID 6078445 | Design ID 15444). Never mind the SNOT capability - it's just nice to have a basic brick in a metal shade. The rear of Emmet's robohead is nice, having only the silver pattern on it - could prove useful. Space Wyldstyle is super cool, with her outfit given a makeover that riffs on Classic Space. Her excellent hoodie piece comes in plain Blue too (Element ID 6078231 | Design ID 15853), which will be much more useful than her regular multicoloured one. Her hair and double-sided head are the same as previous sets. Robo Pilot's (single-sided) face is quite scary, and the Octan logo on his chest unit is cool! Fittingly, his Trans-Red [BL]/Tr. Red [TLG] visor suggests the Space Police theme.

The build kicks off with three small craft; two of which are the same - a little one-person craft in Classic Space colours. The tiny size brought back happy memories of the pocket money Space sets I loved as a child, although I'm not wild on the overall design. The finished vehicle looks nice in profile without a minifig inside, but is a lopsided design with its oversized exhaust. However it has another part to play in this set, which will cast a different light on its design. Parts-wise it's great; it uses a Space seat, and the 1X4 inverted bow that came out in 2013 - in Black, sadly, as I'd have loved to get this in a grey shade, but it looks fine. And of course it uses the Trans-Yellow windshield, which comes with a great sticker of a cross-hair target - but I couldn't possibly add that to such a rare part!

Robo Pilot's shuttle is a bit larger and has a wonderful shape when seen from above, partly achieved with some simple but effective SNOT work using bows. The profile view however is rather comical, having a rather bulbous bullet-shaped body. Which is fine given these guys are comical, and indeed it's necessary to fit the minifigure comfortably inside. Again the colour scheme appears to pay homage to Space Police, which is even more striking in my picture as I didn't add the Octan stickers to the wings.

Bag #2 commences the main spaceship, spaceship, spaceship. Just like the ultimate Classic Space ship, 928 Space Cruiser and Moonbase (released as 497 Galaxy Explorer in the US), you gotta put some groundwork in before the really fun stuff starts. But hey, groundwork is fun too in LEGO. Bags #2 and #3 mostly concern themselves with making a massive undercarriage of large Technic and curved undercarriage parts. This is the first hint you get of just how sprawling this monster of a model is!

Details inside the craft begin to be added, including the traditional bank of controls using 2X2 45° slopes with differing prints on them. These are Black slopes with modern prints; not the original 1979 prints, however those classic designs do get paid respect... the cockpit includes stickers that go on 1X6 tiles which feature miniature versions of those original control panels. This is probably my favourite bit of homage in this whole set; they're adorable and will be really useful.

Towards the end of bag #3 the front is taking shape, with the first of our 2X4 18° slopes with Classic Space logo in place and the nose of the ship built with a good strong technique that should withstand some space accidents. Things start getting really exciting in bag #4, as huge wings slide into the main model using rails and a simple Technic function that controls them is added. The main bridge is really taking shape too, with some cute details.

Book #2/bag #5 kicks off with more minifigures: hooray! Here's Benny. Happily, his face is double-sided with the original smiley face! So along with his airtanks and a walkie-talkie, you can give him the reeeeeal Classic Space look. As ever, Unikitty delivers on thrilling new elements. In her guise of Astro Kitty her feet are 1X1 plates in Pearl Gold [BL]/Warm Gold [TLG] which is new, and a useful match for the very common 1X1 round plate in Pearl Gold. (Her horn is Pearl Gold too, but this is not a new colour for this part.) Her unique tail comes in Blue, unprinted, which should make it much more flexible for other uses. Her cute face peers out of the rectangular visor of a Blue spacesuit and best of all, the 1X3 arch that makes up her body has a little Classic Space logo on one side! It looks a little cramped there, but beggars can't be choosers... Spacers are happy for ANY part that gets a printed Classic Space logo on it. The other nice thing about this element is that Blue 1X3 arches without printing are rare anyway, having only appeared in one set in 1989. As the printing here is only on one side, you'll be able to use the unprinted side in many MOCs.

Back to the build, and wonderfully, the bridge turns out to be octagonal with a hatch to match. There's even some robust greebling on top. By the end of bag #5 the 6X12 canopy is in place, as are the stickered parts with the "LL 929" livery. These are attached to common parts, so there was no difficult application decision for me at all here - Benny HAS to have his LL 929 markings! It's a great shame these couldn't be printed too, but hey.

Bag #6 deals with the rear of the craft and it's pleasing to see how the various structures you've been adding throughout the build get bound together in a way that avoids interfering with the moving wings. There's a recessed section with some Trans-Red bars reminiscent of a Space Police prison cell, and further greebling. This cavity houses two adorable little robots made of eight pieces each, surely a homage to the various robots from 1980s sets like 6807. The cavity gets topped with a folding 6X6 webbed radar dish (Element ID 4211487 4285); a part that just screams Classic Space.

Bag #7 is the final one, so there's lots of fun to finish with. Weapons are added to the wings and the tail and exhaust are completed. The tails have the most gorgeous stickers of all; just a clean Classic Space logo. I was happy to sacrifice the four Blue tail parts; in this instance my main anxiety about applying the stickers was using these gorgeous Classic Space logo stickers when I might want them for something else! But I suspect I may well be buying another copy of this set at some point, or at least more sticker sheets :O)

The final step calls upon the two scooters from the beginning of the build. One wing on each is folded up and they then clip into place on either wing of the main craft, perfectly completing its shape.

What a beautiful end to the build - it wasn't until this point that the wave of relief washed over me; wow, this model is truly awesome! My eight-year old grin spread uncontrollably across my face and I stood up and truly swooshed. And enjoyed the great play functions. And shouted "spaceship!" repeatedly, of course.

I can find little to complain about. Positioning the figs is hard when you have all the canopies and hatches closed - Astro Kitty in particular. But she has a spacesuit on so can sit outside. Always put the cat out. And if I'm being picky; considering how many Classic Space design references they packed into this model, it's a shame there aren't proper bumblebee stripes. These are the small yellow and black stripes that appeared on the wings of the first Classic Space ships - 918, 924 and 928. Benny's Spaceship definitely references this by having yellow as the main colour chosen for "filler bricks" on the interior of the model, and in a couple of points on the exterior. But if I'm putting my purist hat on, yellow should only be used for small little bumblebee stripes.

The age mark on the box is 9-14, so it's not a dull build but it is relatively easy. A couple of steps might trip kids up, but nothing drastic. There are no earth-shattering new techniques, but some very nice effects achieved. It was interesting to see a pulley wheel - that funny little wheel centre that's used on wheelbarrows - get utilised for its ability to do a 180° stud reversal at one point, which may be a helpful new technique for some.

Building the revival

Many FOLs have been shouting for a Classic Space Revival for a very long time, and The LEGO Movie has renewed the desire. Seriously, don't get your hopes up; this set is likely to be the closest TLG ever get to a Classic Space Revival... think of it as a one-set revival. But that doesn't mean us fans can't make a Classic Space Revival! Thanks to this set, not only will a new generation of kids love Classic Space but also TFOLs and AFOLs will have a bunch of excellent Space parts with which to create awesome spaceships. In light of Benny and the forthcoming Exo-Suit set, Jeremy Williams (Bricking It) has created a new Group on Flickr called Out of the Attic where you can upload pics of your original Classic Space sets, or your own new Classic Space inspired creations!

33 comments:

Great review! I've been awaiting this set since pictures first appeared; I even built most of it on LDD using official pics as well as Toy Fair footage.

Let's start with a correction. The 1x4 Trans. Yellow panels are not actually new. While they do have a new element ID (one my brother found on the customer service site along with the other new Trans. Yellow parts from this set late last year), their design ID and color are identical to the ones in 2010's Lunar Limo (5984).

As I suspected early on, the Classic Space logo slopes are printed. I'm sure this was done primarily for MOCers to have a new size of printed logo slope, but I'm sure Bricklink sellers also appreciate that it shouldn't have a direct effect on the prices of their original CS slope bricks.Is Wyldstyle's hood a single color? Her usual hood has the "inside" printed with Bright Purple, and a single-color blue one might be more useful on other figs. The Silver Metallic Piece of Resistance is a nice part to have, and Emmet's construction helmet can be used to make a regular Emmet into a rough facsimile of the CMF Hard Hat Emmet (he'll lack the unique face and instructions tile, but I for one missed my chance at most of the Lego Movie CMF series so I may have to make do).

The stickered tiles with the classic controls will be a great part for use on all sorts of models. I generally apply all the stickers on my sets, but these should make for an easy exception for the sticker-averse.

Astro Kitty! Yaaaaaaaaay! I love Unikitty in all her forms, but on Astro Kitty I especially love the Classic Space logo printed on her butt—it furthers the My Little Pony image that obviously played a part in designing the character (thanks in no small part to her designer and fellow Brony, Matthew Ashton). Benny is great, too—my little brother got him in the Sea Cow, but it'll be nice to have one for myself. Speaking of him, if he returns in the Lego Movie sequel we may see yet another Classic Space tribute set, maybe even with some of his fellow spacemen!

The bridge of the set was one of the biggest surprises to me when building the set on LDD. It was an amazing set, but until I saw videos from Toy Fair and the back of the box I had no idea what lay under Unikitty's seat (with only suspicions that the set held more secrets based on the obvious hinge). It may be cramped, but that's okay. Its shape reminds me of the bridge of one of my childhood sets, the 6198 Stingray Stormer! Yes, at 23 I'm too young to have experienced the original Classic Space theme—but that's one more reason why I can't wait to have this set.

The "pulley wheel", as you describe it, surprised me a year ago with its capacity as a compact stud reversal piece, which I first saw on the small craft in 70702 Wasp Stinger.

All in all, the set looks great! Normally I put off many of my summer Lego purchases until Brickfair Virginia, but in the case of this one it may be hard to hold off! Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!

Bad form for me to have missed the Lunar Limo version, thanks. Yes the hoodie has no printing.If you've attempted this build on LDD you'll find the actual build very interesting, I liked the use of 1x2x2 arches for example, which may come as a surprise when you build it. And the bridge has a nice detail which I haven't revealed.

I don't know, sorry. I don't think they've yet revealed it but if anyone knows for sure, please do comment. It has a lot of large pieces and minifigs, so could be a bit more expensive than your usual ~950 piece set.

You mention that the similarities to classic space are present in the color scheme and in the tiny details, but I think what is particularly admirable is the similarities in "the big picture". This ship is basically a giant wedge, after all — a very Classic Space sort of design. The last non-licensed set to even come close to that archetypical spaceship design was the shuttle in 7690 MB-01 Eagle Command Base, and even that's stretching it. Even in the 90s, this design was shared mostly by a handful of impulse sets — 6984 Galactic Mediator from 2002 was the last flagship set to embrace this design. The top-down view of this set bears a particular resemblance to the red shuttle from the Classic Space logo itself!

I'm not quite sure how to feel about Astro-Kitty having a Classic Space cutie mark on just one side. Yes, it lets you use the arch piece unprinted, but it also means you can't use the printed side on any properly symmetrical creation. Sure, not showing the decoration gives the part another level of versatility — but I have a feeling that many people who buy this set are going to love the piece BECAUSE of the Classic Space logo, not in spite of it.

Did 918 One Man Space Ship actually have bumblebee stripes somewhere I'm not seeing? You mention it in the section of the review about the lack of bumblebee stripes, but I'm not seeing them in any pictures.

Love the video showing off the play features, but you don't explicitly call attention to the firing cannons anywhere in the review! I know these are one of the model's least "classic" features, but they're still cool — both the rubber-tipped Technic launchers and the nifty new 1x4 launchers that debuted in this year's Star Wars sets!

Great review overall. This set is definitely on my family's wish list!

Agreed on the 'wedge', and the overall design lines from every direction are superb - which I hope my clinical shots convey. Yeah, was going to mention the three kinds of shooters but forgot in the end. The new SW ones drive me up the wall, always going off when you're handling the model... consequently I've already lost 2 of the 3 supplied!!

Eek, you're right about 918's lack of bumblebees... especially embarrassing as this was the only one I owned as a child! Fail.

I'm not totally sold on the new shooters. But the small form factor could provide useful for future sets. I have the Corsucant Police Gunship (who can resist transparent red 1x2 bricks and 2x2 45* slopes?!) and the shooters are mounted on top, and I accidentally set one off and it went between the cushions of a reclining couch (EEEK!! I was able to retrieve, thankfully). The neat thing about the Coruscant Gunship is that the shooters are mounted under two black hinge plates with angled side extensions each, so what I did was I put the darts in backwards; now when I handle the gunship, I hit the hinge plates and not the dart, preventing them from flying off to the unknown depths of my Lego-filled bedroom, never to be seen again.

This set looks even better than I had imagined! Definitely at the top of my must-buy list when I can find it in the US.

As someone who came out of his dark ages after the Neo Classic Space guidelines were set, can someone please explain what is so important about fleshy heads in NCS? I don't understand why people updating an original TLG theme like Space would use heads from licensed themes instead of the traditional yellow. Is it the facial expressions?

Flesh toned heads/hands etc. are used to represent characters played by actors (or likely to be represented by them in the case of many super heroes). The figures in Pete's Exo-suit did not represent actors - and that's all I'll say.

It's a standard result of injection molding. You can _sorta_ make it out on the red PoR, but it's less obvious because that's formed in a true opaque plastic. The "foil-covered' PoR is made with a type of plastic that has a transparent/translucent base that caries a solid pigment rather than a dye-based one. The silver nature of that pigment causes it to reflect light strangely where the flows meet, either because the flecks of silver basically polarize themselves against the shape of the flow, or because they pack more densely in that area.

Yeah, slight streaks like that are not too uncommon in what Bricklink calls "pearl" colors. Some people are bothered by it, and thus tend to prefer "metallic" (lacquer or ink) or "chrome" (metalized) colors.

Someone beat me to the punch on the trans-yellow panel, but I thought another glaring error should be pointed out. No blue Classic Spaceman ever flew a ship in that color scheme. They flew white craft, light-grey craft, and light-grey craft with trans-green windshields. Only one blue Classic Spaceman ever came in a set of that color, and it was a rather stationary base...with a pair of white flyers. I can say that with sincerity since I don't remember ever owning any CS sets with the blue color scheme, so it always looked odd to me. I'm used to white craft with trans-blue windscreens, and light-grey craft with no windscreens.

Fantastic review! Loved it!To answer some questions in the comments--Classic Space Blue Astronaut came out in '84 in the 'Space Dart'--just before Futuron. First it was just red and white in '78, then in '82, Yellow guy came out in 6880. But since all 5 colour guys are considered 'classic space', I didn't complain :)The yellow 'bumblebee' was also on the Starfleet Voyager (6929), but the ship was white with grey wings, not blue with grey wings (something I rectified in my Classic Space Layout)My only real gripe is that the review mentioned many other websites EXCEPT LUGNET for classic space references. I'm beginning to wonder if LUGNET is radioactive or has a SEP field painted around it....

I honestly haven't been on LUGNET in years so I decided to stop by to see if it had changed. To my surprise, it has, unless I remember it incorrectly. But it still has many of the flaws I remember from years ago. An overwhelming lack of formatting makes the site hard to read and navigate, not to mention makes it hard to tell the actual site content apart from the Google ads. The parts reference is extremely outdated (making it near-useless to a blog like this that focuses on new elements), the set reference contains little useful information (certainly less than Brickset or even Bricklink, and the most useful info is simply linked from Peeron), and its theme pages focus more on fan themes than actual Lego themes (useful in some scenarios, but not necessarily in a set review like this). I can see evidence of some discussions but can't quite figure out how to browse all discussions, and tellingly, the most popular topic in the Space discussion seems to be a topic with only two replies insisting that the site isn't dead.

All in all, while there seems to be some interesting activity on the site it seems to be the very opposite of user-friendly, and the reference material it offers is less comprehensive and more poorly-presented than the sites used in this review. Unless you can point out a clear instance in the review where a link to another site would be better served by a similar link to LUGNET, I don't see why reviews like this should need to reference that site.

it'll list all space posts, and keep on clicking 'back' and you'll see where most of today's huge space-heads started.

and for classic space sets--

http://guide.lugnet.com/set/?qc=*space

with many comments from classic space heads of the day.

And, quite possibly, my favourite CS post on LUGNET--

http://news.lugnet.com/space/?n=37656

I'm not going to say what's more or less relevant as far as websites go, but I stated somewhere else that people would be hard pressed to make the case that the AFOL community as it is today would be just as awesome, or just as interactive or just as inter-related, if LUGNET never existed.

And you know, as well as anyone else who's been around as long as we have, that LUGNET was developed well before these cute 'out of the box' blogging/newsgroup software.

I have seen this 'hatred' towards LUGNET everywhere. I really have. And I think, as most of your points above, it's really unjustified. If you posted links to neo-classic space (which I still enjoy going to, btw), then you don't have a point about ignoring LUGNET because of the 'archaic nature' of it.

As for my Classic Space sets, I have 1, Terrestrial Rover, with a white Classic Space minifig, but it is missing parts, as are the vast majority of my classic sets (stopped collecting in 1994, when I was 11; my mother had apparently given away a container of pieces, so this year, i'm catalogging what is missing from each set and planning to buy them somehow...)

I love the Trans-Yellow elements but may or may not have preferred the 1x4 trans-yellow panels to be bricks, but as I was not heavily into the classic space sets at my age back then (never liked the classic helmet), it doesn't really bother me, and the panels may provide useful if I ever decide to make a MOC.

Some other older space sets I have include M:Tron, Blacktron II, Space Police and Space Police II, and Ice Planet 2002. All are missing pieces, though. One of my M:Tron sets came with one of those oven/mailbox containers (Red Container, box 2 x 2 x 2, element 4345a) and I noticed a scratch molded into the plastic; later on, when I got Stephanie's Outdoor bakery (set 3930-1), despite the great variation in years, the 2x2x2 container it came with had the exact same scratch in the same exact place. I'm surprised that these molds have survived for as long as they have, 22 years between those two sets.

I respectfully disagree about the trans-yellow. The UCS X-Wing canopy looks too big to be useful to me, because I mostly build Vic Viper variants. The small windows on the side speeders are just not quite the right color for that part: It's much more useful in Trans-Smoke or Trans-Red. I do like the 1x4 panels, though.

Interesting about the mailbox. I never noticed that on my red ones, although I never looked. Molds do tend to last awhile unless their respective theme ends. Most Bionicle molds are buried in concrete right now.

I won't be getting this until Christmas, sadly, but there's always the Exo-Suit to tide me over. Speaking of which, when are we going to get official images of that thing/

There's one more element in this set that I really liked, though it's about as far from a "New Element" as you can get - the 2x4 brick in Bright Red. Since it's completely hidden in the build, it could have been any color - Black probably would have been more cost-efficient since there's already one of those elsewhere in the set - so I can't help but think Bright Red was a deliberate choice to include LEGO's most iconic element.

Nice review. It covers everything well. I was anxious to get this set back to when I first heard about it. And it was a blast to assemble it. One thing of note; Yellow was used for seats and other items in the earliest sets, like 6970. :)